Demand for flights was the strongest at the turn of the year since 2008, but February was the first month since mid-2015 when capacity growth exceeded demand.
New data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) showed that capacity increased by almost 10%, leading to a drop in load factor of 0.7 percentage points to 77.8%.
"It is unclear whether this signals the start of a generalized downward trend in load factor, but it bears watching," said Tony Tyler, IATA’s director general and CEO.
European airlines saw demand rise 7.7% in February compared with a year ago, but capacity was up 7.8%, leading to a 0.1 percentage point dip in load factors to 78.3%.
African airlines saw the greatest rise in traffic, which was up by 12.7%, but as capacity shot up 13.4%, load factors fell 0.4% percentage points to 63.7%.
North America saw the slowest rise in traffic, which was up by just 3.6% while capacity was up by 4.8%, leading to a 0.9 percentage point drop in load factors to 75.9%.
